-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- He did n't die with Wendy on the streets , but Bruce Springsteen 's career needed some life .

It was early 1974 , and Springsteen had enjoyed critical acclaim but little commercial success with two albums the previous year , `` Greetings from Asbury Park , N.J. '' and `` The Wild , the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle . ''

He was n't the rock icon he 'd soon become . He needed a hit .

So the 26-year-old sat down at his Long Branch , New Jersey , home on 7Â 1/2 West End Court -- the same house where he would also write `` Thunder Road '' and `` Backstreets '' -- and he began scribbling lyrics on a sheet of ruled paper from a spiral notebook .

`` This town 'll rip the -LRB- out your -RRB- bones from your back / it 's a suicide trap -LRB- rap -RRB- -LRB- it 's a trap to catch the young -RRB- your dead unless / you get out -LRB- we got to -RRB- while your young so -LRB- come on ! / with -RRB- take my hand cause tramps / like us baby we were born to run . ''

On December 5 , almost 40 years later , the handwritten genesis of one of The Boss ' biggest hits -- and one of rock 'n' roll 's most well-known songs -- will be auctioned off to the highest bidder .

Sotheby 's New York expects the manuscript , which features 30 lines and marginal notations scrawled in blue ink , to fetch between $ 70,000 and $ 100,000 .

`` Born to Run '' reached only No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 , but it aged incredibly well , earning the No. 21 spot on Rolling Stone magazine 's list of all-time greatest songs and being named among the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 's 500 songs that shaped the genre .

Springsteen explained the song 's birth in a statement from Sotheby 's .

`` One day I was playing my guitar on the edge of the bed , working on some song ideas , and the words ` born to run ' came to me . At first I thought it was the name of a movie or something I 'd seen on a car spinning around the circuit . I liked the phrase because it suggested a cinematic drama that I thought would work with the music that I 'd been hearing in my head . ''

An AllMusic review described the tune as a `` celebration of the rock & roll spirit , capturing the music 's youthful abandon , delirious passion and extraordinary promise with cinematic exhilaration . ''

`` A blue-collar fairy tale evoking Phil Spector in its romanticized grandeur and Bob Dylan in its street-corner poetic grit , critic Greil Marcus once described it as ' a '57 Chevy running on melted-down Crystals records , ' '' the review states .

'' ` Born to Run ' is teen melodrama in excelsis , overblown and histrionic in ways Spector never imagined ; it smacks of the kind of palpable , life-or-death desperation which threads its way through everything from ` Romeo and Juliet ' to ` Rebel Without a Cause , ' where every action , every thought and every word bears the complete weight of the world . ''

The 1975 track became Springsteen 's first worldwide release , and while Sotheby 's says many of the original lyrics never made it to the recording booth , the chorus was `` nearly perfected '' in the handwritten manuscript .

`` Ultimately , the song took six months to finalize and clocks in at four and a half minutes long . Springsteen aimed for musical perfection and Spector-level grandeur which he undoubtedly achieved , '' a Sotheby 's news release says .

The manuscript , which was once part of record producer Mike Appel 's personal collection , will be on public view beginning Saturday , according to Sotheby 's . Appel is credited with discovering Springsteen , and he produced The Boss ' first three albums .

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Sotheby 's New York expects handwritten lyrics to fetch $ 70,000 to $ 100,000 at auction

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The sheet of notebook paper features 30 lines and notations scrawled in blue ink

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Many original lyrics did n't make the cut , but manuscript contains `` nearly perfected '' chorus

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Springsteen 's `` Born to Run '' is today considered one of the greatest songs of all time